Wednesday, November 12, 2008

My wife recently noted that despite this blog being about, well, ya know, tanking, there are more posts about cats than there are non-druid tanks.

And "ThinkCat" doesn't really have a good ring to it.

Looking into this, I found out that one of the most popular articles I've wrote happens to be the post on a paladin getting uncrittable. So I'm neglecting a fair amount of people who read this and want info on plate tank wearers. Sorry, guys.

In the future I'll be writing more about Death Knight tanking, I'm sure. Death Knights look to me like the odd bastard child of a paladin and a druid; they have the ability to do good dps and good tanking with one build while sacrificing very little (and in every single talent tree, no less), they can do good AoE tanking, and they have to do weird juggling with their gear including wanting armor aplenty. Plus they're damn cool. I'm not making a death knight my main right now; I don't have the time to get a DK to raiding-level in time for Wrath. But I'll be making one and hopefully using it as a nice alt in the near future.

For now, though, I'm at a loss. I was thinking about doing a gear guide similar to the bear and cat posts I made for Pre-naxx...but this has already been done. At Maintankadin, Zamach has put out a great list of pre and post-naxx gear. One thing it doesn't do is compare BC with WotLK gear, but fortunately honorshammer has done that as well, in an easy to use spreadsheet. There's no need to do a FAQ for paladins, as that's what mine was modeled after. While paladin mechanics were tweaked early on, and they're still getting nerfed thanks to ret fallout, in general they've been very stable and solid - so no 'OMG the sky is falling' posts similar to druids. And unlike druids, their gear is basically the same as a warrior in terms of what they want so their gear is pretty solid too. Their rotation hasn't changed since early beta, and the 969 rotation is still the best. There are plenty of arguments on how poor paladin mitigation is relative to warriors and druids - and that may see some value - but right now they're very close to warriors and have significant enough advantages that I don't believe it'll be an issue. The biggest issue right now is the amount of damage a paladin does relative to a warrior, but that's still a bit silly; it doesn't matter how much threat you do so long as you're doing enough, and right now it's definitely enough. There's even cool addons that show things like AD avoidances and values of your gear as a paladin.

In short, the paladin basic stuff is well covered. Whereas the druid stuff...hasn't been.

So I ask you guys - what paladin or warrior or DK information would you like to see? Or heck, what druid information would you like to see?

4 comments:

I would like to know your opinion on what sort of gear in the upcoming expansion is good for all tanks, but should be funneled to a specific class due to it being better for them than for the other classes.

I would also like to request that you not talk about warrior tanking, pls. :D

Writing about who gear is best for is a pretty good idea. Keep in mind that warriors and paladins have essentially exactly the same desired stats, though after a paladin gets to that 102.4% block/parry/dodge/miss level they won't want block rating as much as a warrior will. Stuff with parry and armor will of course favor a death knight, and stuff with armor without parry will be best for a druid (at least right now) and then a death knight. I'll see if I can do an analysis of shared tanking gear as well as plate-only gear that drops from raids and write it up.

I'll also have to do some kind of analysis on what gear would be best for bears vs. rogues, though sadly that's so far been 'get pvp gear'.

I would love to see some ret pally stuff. I know, I know, it’s called “ThinkTank” not “Think-OP-RETPALLY”, but I’m not sure who to trust as far as other bloggers. I have a new pally that I leveled up and is getting close to level 60. I’ll be completely honest and say that I have zero idea how to play him since I used the “refer your alt” program and had a friend run my new warrior and pally up to level 50 or so. I’m thinking I’ll be ret to level up to at least 70 or so. Got any ideas or even a good place to look for a dummy to start out with his new high level pally? I promise I’ll use him to tank when I get to 80. Or heal…no, forget I said that!

I really don't know anything about being a ret pally. Cromfel's site is the best source for that, and it has a ton of gear levels, strategies, and is a fun place. Please check it out if you've not already.

ThinkTank bio

About Me

Kalon likes playing tanks, no matter how hard he tries to fight it. He is not as hardcore as many but spends a lot of time thinking about WoW, and randomly rants about it now and then. He played formerly on the Argent Dawn (EU) server and was a founding member of Fire and Blood (Quel'Dorei) before joining Casually Serious, a guild devoted to hard core progression on only 8 hours of raiding time a week.
He is a devoted husband, father, and when he has the time programs software.